Shadows Over Thismonth

 The wife is on me about getting the book out ‘there’.

  Again.

  I’ve signed on for a handful of writing groups and workshops that are being put on by the local colleges. My big worry is the publishing side of things. I’ll have to start shaving again. That means visiting the shower a little more often too.

 <Insert sigh and look of exhausted dread>

  Back to the veneer of being a ‘good boy’ again. Gotta keep up that status quo. Soooo, I’m looking into the publishing game. Trying to see what folks are local that might want to help out a fellow local. I figure if I hit it from that angle, I can (at least) say that I am a published author for whatever next work comes out of me.

  The other beni is that I can do local literary shows. Drink a little wine. Act a little important, rub elbows with the elite…

  OK, back to earth.

  I need to find a quiet corner and finish this thing.

- I.K.

The Big Good and Other Bad Things

  I’ve been thinking a lot about ‘law’ lately.

  I’ve been thinking about the Bible too. How many times has religion been used to steer the masses
to act a certain way, with law holding hands as the two Powers skip along. Even so, everyone is quick to point out ‘the separation of Church and State’ whenever I bring this up. Trained monkeys, the lot of them.

  What is Law? I spoke to a layer neighbor the other day, and when I mentioned how law was the red-headed stepchild to rules laid out in the Bible, he got flustered and defensive. I pointed out the whole Thou shalt not kill! and argued that it was the same law written down in our legaleeze books. Shoot; between that and stealing (another one from the Bible), you’ve got the crux of every cop drama show on TV since the dawn of time.

  These days, ‘right’ and ‘legal’ is whatever the Big Business du’jour (de jure?) says it needs it to be. There is no true longevity planning. As long as B.B. is in charge, there are no ‘business ethics’ to speak of. Rain forests will burn. Corporate law breakers will get out of jail… for a ‘fine’. In the end, B.B. wants to tell us what to do with our money, where to spend it, and how much we really need. Corporate laws are adjusted to the favorite B.B.’s of the current regime, to make life easier. It’s all a crock of BS in my book.

  I suppose I’m just frustrated. I’ve lived too long with a budget and now that I don’t have one… or at least I’m not contributing to one; I feel that I have started to look at what’s really going on around me. Us. You.

  We humans enjoy comfort. We want to be carried with minumal effort. That’s why there’s a whole lot more of us than the Amish. We want to be fat and happy, and there are people who have figured out how to become fatter and happier in the process of making us fat and happy.

  I’ve chosen a lifestyle that is outside of the majority ‘norm’ and now I get to deal with it. The problem is, our society has been hard-wired to accept the ‘norm’ and literally or unconsiously show prejudice to those who step outside of it. Fear change. Fear that which is different. The ‘norm’ knows what is right and anything else just smells funny.

  We all need to get ourselves a nose job.

- I.K.

Rhythm and Clues

  Hi.
  Yah, I know I should be writing.
  Sue me.
  LOL.
  Wife’s at work. Kids are at school. Just me and the house. I’ve been following this thing going on in the political arena lately. With the extra time on my hands, I’ve been doing a lot of surfing. Lots of data gathering.
  Speaking of which, what is up with television programming these days? Sheesh. Talk about training the general population for the worse case scenarios! I’m seeing a trend that is more than a little spooky. It might be me, but I’m seeing a lot of women in power getting taken down hard and nasty. Is this a set-up for a woman president or for her removal if the event occurs?
  It gets even more spooky when I think about the population segments that are observing these media blocks of a given day. It’s a propaganda burst. Settle an idea in some elderly or housewife mind, they talk about it endlessly until it becomes a joke by the working class. Then said propaganda event occurs and everyone ‘takes it in stride’ rather than questioning the ethics or morals involved.
  That being said, I’m trying to get behind a political party. It seems that everyone I talk to has a VERY focused opinion for or against one of them. I just don’t see it. The point of it all, that is. Making all that noise like the political arena is a football team or something. It isn’t. It is a bunch of people who represent one or more different levels on the capitalism pyramid. From what I can see, the Democrats rep folks who are hurt by a weak dollar. The Republicans rep those who want to loan against a strong dollar. It takes the Dem’s love of taxes to make the dollar strong, it takes the Rep’s love of big business profit that ultimately allows the pyramid base to ‘flourish’ until the dollar gets weak. It’s a cycle, nothing more than a spinning cycle.
  Personally, I think we’ve let the veneer of ‘capitalism’ run its course within this ruse we call ‘democracy’. We are looking at a political system that is nothing more than paper, with a scant handful of workers trying to control it. Whenever the system bulges with too many higher-ups, then it goes all top-heavy and whatever cause created the gathering of manpower is lost in the resulting scuffle.
  Burn it all down and start with whatever survives the fire, I say.
  Just buy my book first. Keep me off the streets.

- I.K.

Oops.

  Unshaved, bathrobe, coffee.

  Yep. I’m unemployed.

  Hi there. I’m outta a job. Still getting my head around that one...

  I had a “cost inducing error of judgment” that blew out some equipment and cost the company some big bucks to replace. When the budget review came back, I was outsourced.

  Wife, kid, house, cars… all that and no cash.

  Not good.

  They’re thrilled too.

  Still, I don’t feel stressed out anymore.

  For the first time in a looooong time, I feel relaxed. It’s nice kicking back and letting the world pass by the window. I’m punching my own clock now.

  I’ve made a deal with the wife. She’s giving me 30 days to finish the book and farm it out. Then I’ve got to get back into the mainstream. The question of the day: Is it 30 days from right now or ’30 days’ ala ‘the end of this month’. I’m willing to place my bet on the latter.

  Word has it that things are tricky for new authors, so I’m going to give myself a couple of weeks to get the book done. Then it will carpet bomb every agent and publisher I can find. I was aiming on the 50k work novel goal. Now I might make due with any novella or whatever other book deal I might find. Anything is something at this stage of the game.

  If I still come up empty, then it is back to the old bump and grind of the ‘real world’. It’s nice when ‘love’ defines itself as a set cost-of-living-to-be-happy number. First I was the dreamboat, then I was the sperm bank. Now I’m the cash cow.

  At least I know my place in this little machine called home.

- I.K.

Tick Tock Tick Tock...

  Grey matters.

  I’ve been thinking about something lately. What, exactly; do we really know? I'm talking about our individual knowledge pool in contrast to all the stuff available to us to learn.

   What about our planet’s data banks ‘pool’ in contrast to our universes ‘pool’?

  What is the correct ratio of data knowledge to real-world knowledge? Is it a sliding scale? Does that even matter?

   Things are getting dicey down at the shop. The client nuked the electricians who blazed the mainframe. Now they’re ‘assessing the current I.T. staff for opportunities’. Work responses have been cut in half due to CYA maneuvers. It’ll blow over in time. I give it two weeks; and then business as usual. It's just the way these things work out.

- I.K.